Wendig's Twenty-Five Things Writers Should Know, Johnny Depp's New Imprint, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
10.16.12

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:

Actor Johnny Depp is launching a HarperCollins imprint called Infinitum Nihil—its first release will be Douglas Brinkley's The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan. (Rolling Stone)

Amy Einhorn Books recently acquired Mary O’Connell’s next novel, In the Rye. In the story, J. D. Salinger's famous Holden Caulfield ventures out of the pages of The Catcher in the Rye and into the streets of Manhattan to help locate a missing teacher. (New York Times)

Novelist Gary Shteyngart was recently interviewed by the Guardian about the upcoming presidential election, and had choice words about the Tea Party: "The other side of the coin, and a lot of people don't want to talk about it for obvious reasons, is that it is a racist movement. These people cannot deal with the fact that there is a black person in the Oval Office."

Microsoft announced the pricing for its new line of Surface tablets. (TechCrunch)

The battle over the ownership of Franz Kafka's papers has been decided in court, and the archive will be handed over to Israel's national library. (BBC)

Next month, at three venues in New York City, dozens of authors, booksellers, editors, and actors—including Jonathan Ames, Sarah Vowell, Paul Dano, and Touré—will participate in a marathon reading of Melville's Moby-Dick. (DNAinfo)

"Okay, yes, go say hello to your favorite writermonkeys. But, hey, also? Don’t be a crazy-pants asshole about it." On his blog, author Chuck Wendig offers twenty-five things writers should know about conferences and conventions.

The Daily Show posted an unedited version of Jon Stewart's recent interview with J. K. Rowling.